Monroe, Washington

How Monroe is governed

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0 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

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  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

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    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

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      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

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      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

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      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

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      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

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  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

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    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

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    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

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    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

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  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

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    Presides over the municipal court.

Website

ci.monroe.wa.us

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Population over time

From 17,304 in 2010 to 19,699 in 2020 (+13.8%).

History

Origins and establishment of Park Place

The confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers had originally belonged to the indigenous Skykomish tribe, who predominantly occupied the area between modern-day Monroe and Index. The confluence itself was known as Tualco (Lushootseed: squa'lxo), and a nearby Skykomish village named S'dodohobc acted as a trade post between several Coast Salish groups. A separate settlement near modern-day Monroe was used by the S'dodohobc band of the Snohomish people. The land around the confluence was cleared into a prairie and used to cultivate berries, hazelnuts, and other plants. The Skykomish were among the tribes to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, effectively ceding their traditional territories, including the Tualco and confluence areas.

The area around modern-day Monroe was surveyed by George B. McClellan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during their expedition to find a suitable pass for a railroad across the Cascade Mountains. The Treaty of Point Elliott was not fully ratified until 1859, but the first American settlers had already arrived and claimed squatters rights to homestead in the Skykomish Valley. Robert Smallman, an English immigrant, arrived in 1855 and was the first to homestead on the land around modern-day Monroe. He was followed by Henry McClurg, an appointed county commissioner, who settled in the area with his wife Martha in 1860. McClurg later founded the settlement of Park Place in 1864, on a site one mile (1.6 km) west of modern-day downtown Monroe. Two other settlers arrived in 1860: Salem Woods, who claimed a small prairie to the northeast of Tualco and was later elected county sheriff; and Charles Harriman, a territorial legislator who settled in Park Place.

Park Place and Tualco, located on opposite sides of the Skykomish River, grew with the arrival of more settlers in the 1860s and 1870s. A local school district, the second in the county, was established in 1869 by McClurg, and Park Place gained a post office in 1877 with Woods as postmaster. A ferry crossing the Skykomish River was established in 1882, several years prior to the start of regular steamship service on the river as far east as Sultan. The first roads in the area were surveyed in 1882, including an 11-mile (18 km) wagon road connecting Park Place to Snohomish in the west. During the 1880s, settlers in Park Place and Tualco received their first shipment of dairy cattle and also began planting hops, which would briefly become a cash crop until the arrival of the hop aphid and economic panic of the 1890s ruined the harvest.

Renaming and relocation

The original Park Place post office and general store were abandoned and replaced by a new building that opened in 1890. John Vanasdlen, operator of new store, petitioned for the reopening of the post office but was rejected by the U.S. Post Office Department, which only allowed a single-word name for new offices. "Monroe" was chosen by Vanasdlen, with the input of McClurg, to honor of U.S. President James Monroe. The new post office for Monroe was granted by the U.S. Post Office Department on March 19, 1890.

The Great Northern Railway chose a route over Stevens Pass in the late 1880s for its transcontinental railroad connecting Seattle to St. Paul, Minnesota, bringing new development to the Skykomish Valley. Monroe at Park Place was platted in 1890 and gained several new businesses, including a blacksmith, grocery store, a second hotel, and a butcher. The final survey for Great Northern in 1891 placed the railroad tracks one mile (1.6 km) northeast of Park Place, bypassing the settlement in favor of a straighter alignment to cross the Snohomish River south of downtown Snohomish.

The railroad built a small depot named "Wales" on the 40-acre (16 ha) homestead of Jack Stretch, who platted a settlement on the north side of the tracks that he named "Tye City" for Great Northern's locating engineer George Tye. Great Northern completed their railroad through the Skykomish Valley in January 1893, following additional work near Snohomish to rebuild a bridge that had been destroyed in a flood. In late 1892 and early 1893, several merchants in Park Place moved their buildings to the south side of Tye City using teams of oxen, horses, and a steam thresher. After the relocation of Vanasdlen's general store and post office, the settlement became known as Monroe.

The completion of the railroad attracted lumber operations to the Monroe area, boosted by the opening of the first shingle mill in 1894 and the first sawmill on Woods Creek in 1897. A bridge across the Skykomish River was opened in 1894 to replace the ferry and the town's first church was established two years later. The county government chose a 40-acre (16 ha) site north of Monroe for a 20-bed poor farm at the modern-day site of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds; it later became the Valley General Hospital. A cooperative of Monroe-area farmers built the city's first creamery in 1895, which was destroyed in a fire four years later and later rebuilt. By the end of the decade, Monroe had also gained a new school building, telephone service, a local newspaper, a full-time doctor, and paved sidewalks.

Incorporation and new industries

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Other cities in Washington

• Seattle 737,015
• Spokane 228,989
• Tacoma 219,346
• Vancouver 190,915
• Bellevue 151,854
• Kent 136,588
• Everett 110,629
• Renton 106,785

All Washington cities →